Day 3- The Mount, Great Barrington and Greylock

 Ready for another day of bookish delight!

We headed to Great Barrington to visit Fuel Coffee for breakfast.  I decided to try the Chaider.  It was all right but much more cider than chai. 

We spent a bit of time reading here. 

After which we walked around Berkshire Food Co-op for a little bit.  Since most of the shops we wanted to visit didn't open until ten or later we decided to head to The Mount for a while.  

The Mount was the home of Edith Warton. I was not really familiar with her, nor had a read any of her books. But the grounds were beautiful. We didn't want to pay to go into the house for the tour. We decided maybe we'd do that on our next trip. 😉 We visited the giftshop, there were so many bookish bits and bobbles to look at.  We both ended up coming away with more book themed tea.

There was a little free library and Laura scored a pristine copy of Stuart Little.

We headed back to Great Barrington to visit some shops and have lunch.  Yellow House Books turned out to be a treasure trove of used books.

I was beyond delighted to find two favorites from middle school and a book about Louisa May Alcott, which had a book plate inside from Orchard House!

We also loved that the shop keeper wrote all the titles we purchased on a yellow legal pad, before keying the prices into the old school cash register.

Lunch at Rubi's where we had the most delicious paninis.

After lunch we headed to Greylock.  The highest point in Massachusetts. It took us 20(ish) minutes to drive up the winding 9 mile mountain road to the top.

The monument itself was quite impressive, begun after WWI has a tribute to those who died fighting in the war. The view from the top was breathtaking.  89 twisty spiral stairs to the top.

Again I couldn't help but marvel at God's creation and feel profoundly thankful for America and the men and women who have sacrificed for our freedoms.

Sometime on the trip we started talking about hiking the Appalachian Trail- so we had to take our pictures by the Appalachian Trail signs. We have now officially hiked *part* of the Appalachian Trail! 

We stopped at Guido's Marketplace to grab a salad to eat with our leftover pizza for dinner on our way home. We got back to the hotel tired but blissfully happy.  We read a little bit before dinner. I finished The Bells of Traeger Hall- still processing how I feel about the ending.

Of course, more tea and reading! I started Can't help Falling for Cousin Book Club. We snapped a picture to send to Jenn (cousin and fellow book club member).

Monday, we had a few stops before heading for home.

First was No Six Depot - delight! Loved the atmosphere and the baristas were so kind and friendly. We both had chai lattes and pastries.

We had some time to kill before our last book shop stop opened so we headed to Stockbridge Coffee and Tea to read.

Our last stop was Shaker Mill Books. We could have spent so much longer in this store! So much to look at.

Laura and I both got different editions of Edith Warton's Ethan Frome, we found it interesting that we read the back of 3 or 4 different editions and they all put a slightly different spin on the story.  We shared this insight with the shopkeeper as we were checking out and she informed us she definitely had opinions on the book too. Hmmmm, intriguing. Made us want to read it all the more.

Headed home!

My bookish haul from the weekend!

It was a great time. Filled with delight and sharing time, laughter and books with my sister. Can't wait for our next adventure.

Day 2! Louisa May Alcott's House!!

 We started each morning with coffee and quiet time. We're early risers...even on vacation. 😆

Our first stop was to try and visit Olivia's Overlook-after two aborted attempts the day before (the parking lot was too full).  But we made it this time, although we decided spot was probably better for afternoon viewing. Ah well.  

We enjoyed the quiet, foggy view for a few minutes before heading to our next stop about an hour away.

We found the Shelburne Falls Coffee Roasters a delight.  We both got breakfast sammies and lattes that hit the spot. Mine was a Maple something or other and so delicious! 

From there we headed to Poet's Seat Tower for more stunning views. The air was crisp and sunny.

We couldn't help but marvel at the beauty sprawled out before us.

Next up is maybe my favorite bookshop of the trip- The Silver Unicorn.  I just loved how cute and whimsical it was.

Tiny door to the children's section- delight!

I purchased a Taylor Jenkins Reid book from my TBR Carrie Soto is Back because how could I not buy a book in her hometown!  I loved Malibu Rising, I still think about it. Couldn't get into Daisy Jones and the Six, maybe I'll try again sometime. I have One True Love (I think) on my shelf at home.

I also determined if I came across the Bakery Dragon book again, I was buying it. This store didn't have it but I did enjoy flipping through this book that had something special about every state.

This one also caught my eye- I didn't purchase but may look for it in the future. A cross between Anne of Green Gables and How to Train Your Dragon? Intriguing. Apparently I am in my dragon era 😂

Update: It's in our library system and I just put it on hold!

We made a quick stop at Idylwilde Farms but it was too busy and crowded and after a quick pass through continued on to our most anticipated stop of the day!

Louisa May Alcott's home Orchard House- we were giddy with excitement!

We made our way to the gift shop to sign up for a tour. There was one just starting and were able to jump right in.  The tour begins here with a video giving some background information before our tour guide took us room by room through the Alcott's home. This building was her father's school of philosophy. 

We were not allowed to take any photos in the house. Which seemed disappointing but we later concluded we were much more present not looking through the screen of our phones. The house was so lovely. We learned about each room and our guide told us interesting anecdotes about Louisa and her family.

It was a darling house "held together with love and not much else."  We saw Louisa's bedroom and the desk built for her by her father, in front of her windows where she penned Little Women.  Much of the story based on her own sisters and Orchard House.

In the parlor we saw a long throw pillow on the sofa and learned Louisa had a "mood pillow". When the pillow was vertical she was in a good mood and all was well. When it was horizontal she was best avoided. Our guide said visitors used to peer through the window to see which position the pillow was in before knocking on the door. Those that didn't know, knocked anyway, if she was not in the mood for visitors she would answer the door, pretend to be a maid, put on her best Irish accent and tell them Louisa, was not at home.

The tour definitely ignited our desire to know more, to (re)read Little Women and learn more about Miss Louisa and all the Alcott's.  And perhaps come visit Orchard House again. 

We both came away laden with treasures, including deluxe editions of Little Women, tea and a mug. A bookmark for me and a sticker for Laura, both with the quote:

“Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.”

                                                ― Louisa May Alcott

At checkout we were given book plates to put inside our books stating they were purchased at Orchard House. (Delight!)

Once we pulled ourselves away from the giftshop and Orchard House we ventured down the road to see- The Wayside which at one time or another was home to Hawthorne, the Alcotts and Margaret Sidney.

It struck us funny to see a colonial soldier taking a photo for a family as we were leaving.

Concord is a town rich in literary and historical delights.

We stopped and saw the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson, only from the outside. 

A little further down the street we passed the home of John Adams.

Making our way to Main Street we went in search of an early dinner since we hadn't eaten lunch- but we ended up going to two bookshops first because they closed at 5 and we didn't want to miss out on visiting them. Who needs food when there are bookshops to visit!

First was The Concord Bookshop... where I found the bakery dragon book!

It was an all right shop but not overly friendly and we felt like it was trying to be Barnes & Noble.

Then we visited Barrow Bookstore- a used book store.

The receipt was hand written on a triplicate form.

Finally we made it to dinner.

We opted to sit at the bar to be seated right away.  We were sooooooo hungry.

We almost gave into fear they forgot our order when our food arrived. (They did forget the soup for the lady sitting next to me so valid fear! 😅)  We were so hungry we even got an appetizer- soft pretzels (not as good as ours but hey).

And we both had fish and chips.

We took a gander through an old cemetery on the way back to our car.

It was a little bit of a walk to return to the car but enjoyable.  Then a 2 hour drive back to our hotel.  We listened to nostalgic 90s country music and sang our hearts out to pass the time.

Back at the hotel we changed into pjs, put the kettle on so we could enjoy our new Little Women tea in our new bookish mugs and look at our pretty new Little Women books. Delight! Delight! Delight!